After 7 years of effective mobilization, APN pushed the Coordination Committee of the Civil Society Mechanism to approve of a permanent seat for communities living under war or occupation. 

The decision was announced at the Coordinating Committee during 4-6 May 2017, during which APN volunteer Hanan Arouri presented APN’s proposal and justification for the seat and its critical timeliness considering the global escalation of hunger as a result of war; the United Nations had announced a state of emergency due to the tragic level of hunger that threatens Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria, all of which are countries in conflict.

The Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) is a platform that unifies efforts by civil society organizations in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the foremost international platform that works on agricultural and food security policies and is one of the United Nations bodies. 

It is worth mentioning that APN, through its Board member Razan Zuayter fought to bring the topic of food security in wars, occupation and crises on the agenda of the CFS since civil society organizations in the region elected her to become the representative of West Asia in the Coordination Committee in 2010. 

In 2015, APN Manager Mariam Al jaajaa was elected as the new representative for West Asia in the mechanism and she has been coordinating the International Civil Society Working Group on Protracted Crises.

She is developing now a methodology for the new seats for communities suffering from war and occupation.